


L.A Devotee

by ashleygail



Category: IT (2017)
Genre: ... he's not still a child, Actor!Richie, Alternate Universe- Famous Person, Child Actor!Richie Tozier, Enemies to Lovers, Hurt and comfort, Let Eddie be Wrong 2k19, M/M, Philizer Friendship, band au, celebrity au.... fake dating au... enemies to lovers au... oh my, fake dating au, mentions of alcholism, musician!Eddie
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2019-11-13 07:20:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18027248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashleygail/pseuds/ashleygail
Summary: “I don’t date musicians,” Richie interrupted her, speaking loudly over what other praises Kay was about to give this Edward person that Richie never wanted to meet.‘You don’t date anybody, Richie.” Kay pointed out simply, leaning forward towards him. “That’s part of the problem. You have to know by now that your public image is just as important as whatever you’re putting onto that screen.”[or: child actor Richie Tozier was raised in The Industry, he knows how to play the game. He knows exactly how to keep his head down, and make his way through the famous life without attracting any extra drama. Until his management branch takes an up incoming band under their wing, and enlist Richie to publicly date the lead singer, and that all falls to shit.]





	1. Chapter 1

Richie Tozier grabbed a blueberry muffin from Audra Philips awaiting hand and swept to press a kiss to her cheek. He hummed, smiling down at his best friend. “What would I do without you?”

 “Crash and burn.” Audra replied promptly with a sly grin. Richie and Audra had grown up together since they were only seven years old, co-stars on some Disney Channel show that Richie sort of wished that he could erase from his filmography completely, and they’d been inseparable ever since. Audra had been cast a few years earlier on some big list CW television show that Richie had openly never seen an episode of- but had guest starred in two or three just because Audra was always his biggest fan. Richie himself leaned more towards movies, and had gotten into a few big roles in just last year or so. He connected well with a big time, multi-award wining writer director Bill Denbrough- one of the youngest Oscar Award Winning directors in history- and Richie had large roles in his movies more often than not since. Richie liked to believe that were the perfect level of famous, the two of them, that they had names and the money and little enough of the corrupted bullshit.

"Kay called this morning,” Audra said, padding back towards their large marble-styled kitchen in her woolly socked feet. “So I don’t think you’ll be having much time for an actual breakfast this morning. I know how important healthy, balanced meals are to you.”

Richie let out a disbelieving laugh, they most knowing full well that Richie ran on black coffee and sour candies on a good day. “Oh yeah? And which tabloid printed that shit?”  

“J14 did a whole thing on _How Richie Tozier gets keeps himself healthy during filming,”_ Audra said, removing the Starbucks cup from it’s cardboard tray and slid it across the kitchen island towards them. Every morning, Richie and Audra would sit around the kitchen and eat their store-bought breakfast and Richie would think about how nice their kitchen was despite the intense lack of cooking that went on within it. Richie, truthfully, would have been perfectly happy with a well-windowed apartment, but he’d never had a small house. His parents had been in The Industry- behind the scenes- and Richie had been on a stage or in front of a camera since he could talk. Too large houses that were mere full of stuff and hardly any people were all Richie Tozier had ever known. Likely all he ever would, and he’d accepted it by now.

“J14 always has the worst bullshit,” Richie laughed, tossing his head back and choosing not to make fun of the light cream colour of Audra’s drink. He liked to believed that those sort of soft arguments between them had gotten old, but Richie kind of hoped that they never would. “I sometimes think they don’t ever actually interview anything, they just make up information that’s vague and non-offensive enough that nobody calls them out on it all being crap.”

“And why are they still plastering us on their magazines?” Audra said back, shaking her head and ripping off a piece of her butter croissant. “We haven’t been staring on Disney Channel in years. Don’t they have any new Mouse Housers to pay attention to?”

“No,” Richie chuckled, swishing the liquid around in his cup. “Have you seen some of those new Disney Channel shows?”

 Audra raised her eyebrows. “No? Do you still watch the Disney Channel?” Richie ripped the top of his muffin off and stuffed it into his mouth. Audra laughed lightly, shaking her hand, and walked over to the counter top where Richie always left his phone plugged in over night to charge. “You have six missed calls from Kay, and she called me this morning to get your lazy ass up. You need to start bringing your phone into your room at time to avoid this shit.”

“This is exactly why I _don’t_ bring my phone into my room,” Richie pointed out, accepting the phone as Audra passed it to him. He did have several missed calls from Kay McCall, his childhood co-star turned manager post-Disney, and a few texts from Beverly Marsh as well. Beverly and Kay had both been big parts of Richie’s Disney day growing up, but had chosen to go different routes after they became too old but not old enough for Disney Channel to mark good profit off of. Kay had gone in with Richie’s own parents, and was trained to loose her soul and suck the souls out of others, Beverly chose to stay close to the production and work at making people look fashionable and beautiful at any point in time. Without Beverly, Richie supposed he would never look good enough to even leave his house.

“What does she want?” Richie said, scrolling through the alerts on his lock screen, praying that Audra would somehow know what Kay was looking for from him and he wouldn’t have to call Kay himself. He enjoyed Kay as a person, he’d more than gladly invite her over for drinks any weekend, the woman was one of his oldest friends in the world but he very much disliked when Kay outreached to him through his work line. It always meant that he was about to be forced to do something he wasn’t going to like.

Audra gave him an unimpressed look. “You think Kay would tell me your personal information? Not until she’s four cocktails in, Dickard. Just that you need to get down to the center as soon as your scrawny, greasy ass is out of bed- and _yes,_ those were her exact words.” Audra grabbed the newspaper from Richie’s hands as he tried to open it for reading, and brought it down on his head. “And she said to dress nice! Which means you’re probably meeting some important people today!”

Richie crinkled his nose. “Why? I’m already lined up to start Denbrough’s film next month. I don’t usually do more than one big project at a time, because I’m a mental health flight risk.” Richie tossed his arms out and twirled his hands out in the jazz hands style. “I shouldn’t be meeting any new people. I hate meeting new people.” Audra stared Richie down until Richie groaned loudly and pushed himself away from the kitchen island, and stomped to his bedroom.

Barely bothering to change, Richie came out and made an overly dramatic farewell to Audra- complete with _if you don’t hear from me in an hour, assume that Kay has killed me-_ which was so regular between them that Audra didn’t so much as blink.

Richie walked directly into the front door of the PenWise Management, trying to keep his head down enough that nobody would stop and talk to him, but not so much that somebody would stop and demand to know who he was. He was unimpressed to find that Kay was standing in the front foyer, dressed up completely with her fanciest pant suit, and arms crossed angrily. Richie hunched his shoulders up higher and stepped towards. Kay McCall was wearing her ass whopping face.

“I thought you were told to dress up.” Kay said sharply to him as soon as he approached. Richie looked down at his checkered black vans, black ripped jeans and white-and-black striped shirt.

“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?” Richie asked, knowing pretty damn well exactly what was wrong what he was wearing. Kay gave a scoff of disgust that was much more friend-like than manager-like and waved him over her shoulder, as she began to walk down the hall towards her office. Richie sighed, rolling in his eyes slightly, and following her down. Kay quickly closed the office door behind them and gestured for Richie to sit down.

“Am I like, in trouble here?” Richie asked, crinkling his brow. Kay sighed and leaned up against the desk and looked at Richie slowly.

“You’re not going to like this,” Kay said, voice firm and detached.

Richie raised his eyebrows, heart rate starting to pick up. “Are you guys dropping me? Did Bill’s movie fall through? What? You’re killing me!”

“Calm down, Rich,” Kay said, voice almost carrying laughter. She sounded so much like Richie’s friend just then that he let his guard down, always a fatal mistake in this industry. Richie learned more than a long time- maybe he’d never learned it at all, maybe it had always been something that he knew in his soul- that there was nobody in his life he could trust except Audra Phillips.

“There’s this alternative band, up in coming. Our branch has been listed to represent them through everything,” Kay said, taking a pen from her pen holder and clicking it a few times. “They’re pretty good, too. Really matching well with the new sound that the Top 40s are looking for. We think they’re going to be a great hit, we just need to find a way to draw attention to them.”

“And shouldn’t their talent do that for them?” Richie asked haughtily with a roll of his eyes. Kay met his gaze for a moment and didn’t say a word, and Richie exhaled hard. “Okay, yeah, I know. Talent has little to do with success, blah blah. Whatever. Can you get to the point where this has something to do with me?”

“Well…” Kay looked momentarily uncomfortable before donning back on her usual business like expression that always held itself within the walls of his building. “We were all talking and we all know what’s the best way to get somebody’s name into the media. By putting them into a relationship with somebody who’s already a big name.” Richie’s mouth dropped open but Kay rushed right over him, not giving him that chance to argue. “The lead singers’ name is Edward or… something like that. Sweet kid, doesn’t really have the look of some alternative punk kid, but I think you’ll really-“

“I don’t date musicians,” Richie interrupted her, speaking loudly over what other praises Kay was about to give this Edward person that Richie never wanted to meet.

‘You don’t date _anybody,_ Richie.” Kay pointed out simply, leaning forward towards him. “That’s part of the problem. You’re unattainable, you haven’t dated anybody since your Disney days and while I’m sure you diehard fans are still shipping you with that one girlfriend you had when you were fourteen, but you have to know by now that your public image is just as important as whatever you’re putting onto that screen.”

Richie just simply crossed his arms and glared at Kay, knowing that he wasn’t going to be winning this argument. “Did it _have_ to be a musician? All musicians are total pompous assholes. I would _never_ date a musicians, Kay, you have to know that!”

“Well,” Kay smiled blandly at him. “It’s a good thing you won’t actually be dating this guy. You’ll have to go out in public with him a bit, get pap’d, show up in a couple of clubs together and go to some events with the guy on your arm. A couple of months from now, they’ll have a successful album drop and then you’ll have a simple break up. Snip snip, no harm and fowl. You never have to see him again if you don’t want to.”

Richie narrowed his eyes at a simple insinuation that Richie ever _would_ be interested in seeing some pumped up musician outside of forced interactions. Kay clapped her hands once and stood up. “Okay, well, I’m glad you agreed-“

“I didn’t agree-“ Richie tried to point out but Kay did what she did best- refused to give him the chance.

“Because their band is finishing up signing some contracts with a bunch of our underlings,” Kay said, moving towards the door once more. “And I told Edward to stick around. I want you guys to meet, before we start doing any of these dumb publicity things. Which I why I told you to dress nicely- but you seem determined to not look nice for anything that I ask of you unless I forcibly get Beverly to dress you herself- but so be it.”

Kay opened the door and another boy came walking in. She’d been right in assuming that Edward here didn’t have the exact look of somebody going into this whole alternative scene, with wide trusting Bambi eyes and argyle style clothes. _Damn,_ Richie thought to himself. _Hollywood is going to eat this kid alive and spit him right back out._

“Edward, this is-“ Kay began but Edward cut across him in such a tactless fashion that Richie hadn’t mastered himself just yet.

“It’s just Eddie,” he said, voice high and lovely just like Richie knew that most musicians who weren’t into hard drugs were like. Charming and star seeking, the kind of voice that made girls swooned and Richie scowl. “Only my mother calls me Edward, and fuck her, so.”

Richie blinked and gaped at the foul-mouthed boy. Sure, Richie Tozier had possibly the most ridiculously foul mouths he’d ever known, and people were constantly telling him it.  He’d never denied it, but even he could recognize a personal environment when it came to him. His managers office, with a some random person he’d never met before and was going to be in a large scale fake relationship in order to kick start his career- that was the kind of environment he’d find a way to watch his mouth.

Even Kay looked caught off guard by Eddie’s slander on his own mother, if only from the look in her eyes. “This is Richie Tozier, he’s-“

“Yeah, man, you’re cool!” Eddie brushed right past Kay’s formal introduction and Richie openly winced. “I’ve seen a bunch of you stuff! Some of it is actually pretty good!”

Richie’s raised his eyebrows. “Some of it? Which isn’t your taste, Eddie Spaghetti? The one with the stalker fan played by Kathy Bates who was a _little too old_ to be so obsessed with my twenty-one year old self or the plane one going through the time loop?”

“The plane one was my favourite,” Eddie said simply, reaching to take some of the candies from Kay’s desk. Richie bit down on the tip of his knuckle and glanced over his shoulder at Kay. Her lips were pursed together in obvious distaste, and he thought that _maybe_ she was going to let him off the hook here. Even as he wished it, he knew it was a long shot.

“So, we’re gonna be fake boyfriends…” Eddie said, glancing at Richie and smirked. “You’ll be better dressed when you’re holding my hands in public, right?”  

Richie was pretty sure that keeping his calm in that office was the first Academy Award winning performance he’d ever given.


	2. Chapter 2

Photoshoots were the quite possibly Richie’s least favourite part of being famous. Well, no, he knew many things he hated about being famous much more- but doing photoshoots was his least favourite part of being famous that he was also paid for. So, for him to arriving onto a set for a photoshoot that _wasn’t his,_ and he _wasn’t being paid for,_ was a big reach for Richie. He’d pitched possibly the biggest fit he’d ever done in his managers office that the day before when he was told what was expected of him, but Kay had been more than firm.

“This is the first big shoot for their band and _you’re_ supposed to be a supporting, loyal boyfriend.” Kay had pointed out to him. “You need to be there and _show support.”_

Richie had shot back some retort about how he’d thought he was going to be more of sugar daddy for Edward of Musician than a supporting boyfriend, but he’d already known that he’d lost the battle. He was standing in front of Beverly while she holding up two shirts that Richie thought looked pretty much the exact fucking same. “Why I am being done up? I’m not even being photographed!”

Beverly gave him a withering look, lowering the shirts slightly. “This might not be your photoshoot, Richard, but you’re a fool if you think nobody is going to be taking pictures of you. This is the big debut of your relationship-“

“Fake relationship,” Richie attempted to interrupt but Beverly clapped a hand over his mouth.

“Don’t interrupt me, Tozier, you know it doesn’t end well for you.” Beverly pushed on, removing her hands from Richie’s mouth and holding the shirts back up beside his face. “You need to look just as presentable as you would if this was your own photoshoot. Put up a good face for the public.”

“Why do _I_ have to put up a good face?” Richie sneered. “The public already knows me, and what I wear in casual situations.”

Beverly paused, lowering the shirts and narrowing her eyes at him. “You’re right.”

“I’m… what? Did you just say that I was right?” Richie squeaked, eyes widening in mock disbelief. “I never thought this day would come. I’d first like to thank my parents, and of course, the Academy-“

“Even a broken clock is right twice a day,” Bev said with an eye roll and a soft smile. “It’s just… you _are_ right. If you come around here looking like it’s a business transaction then your fans going to figure out pretty quickly that this isn’t real. You need to look like your every day self, not somebody who’s purposely impressing the public.”

“So you’re not going to make me change?” Richie asked quietly, looking down at himself. He’d actually given the outfit of the day a little bit of thought, and most of that thought was the needed to think the worst possible thing in his closet to be sure that Eddie fucking hated it. He found those sparkly boots hidden way in the back of his closet from his Harry Styles wannabe days, and paired them with a bright Hawaiian print shirt and neon red skinny jeans. He’d been considerate enough to wear a red and white print on his shirt, and he felt that was a branch of niceness he hadn’t been obligated to provide.

Beverly looked him up and down and crinkled her nose. “Yeah. I’ll call Kay and make the point to her, you know she’ll see it from our point of view. Go over and talk to Eddie, and at least _look_ boyfriendly. I don’t care what you say, just look cute while you say it!”

“I can do that!” Richie called over his shoulder, grinning, as he moved over to Eddie. He couldn’t deny that guy was attractive, looking particularly more the part today in the beat up leather jacket and ripped jeans that Beverly had pushed him into than the sweater and khakis he’d been wearing when Richie had met him the other day. His hair seeming curlier than Richie had noticed when they were in Kay’s office, but Richie was sure it that was because of product or a lack of product.

Richie forced a smile, cupping Eddie’s hip with one hand and leaning in to press a kiss to Eddie’s cheek. He pulled back and smiled blandly at him. “How are we doing here?”

Eddie looked Richie up and down and rolled his eyes, still wearing a smile. “About on par with your outfit; loud, bright and unnecessary.” Richie fought off a cringe and wrapped an arm around Eddie’s waist. “Do you want to meet the guys? I don’t think you’ve been introduced.”

Eddie guided Richie towards the three men that were all gathered around the white backdrop the basic photographer was holding them in front of. Richie could see without needing to look around that people were taking discreet photos of the two of them, so Richie kept his arm around Eddie’s waist as he was lead over.

Eddie pressed a little bit against him as he smiled at his bandmates. “Hey, guys, this is Richie! Please excuse his outfit, it seems his mother never taught him how to dress himself.” Richie stiffened against Eddie, and it seemed that Eddie felt it, as the back of Eddie’s neck started to turn a little pink. “He’s our ticket to fame, apparently.”

The serious looking boy with tight curls, and the only one in a simple grey button up without the leather jacket, gave Eddie a dull look. “Our talent is what is going to be our ticket to fame. I won’t be reduced to a spineless boyband with a prostitute front man.”

With that, the curly haired man was turning and walking away. Richie noticed for the first time that the perma-grin had left Eddie’s face, the other man walking his bandmate walk away with pursed lips and almost sad eyes. Richie knew that inner turmoil this early in the game was a bad play, but Richie wasn’t on contract to give them advice.

“I’m sorry about that,” The black man with the guitar over his shoulder said, giving Richie a soft smile. He noted that none of them were giving an obvious introduction, no shaking of hands, and Richie chose to believe that it was because they’d been trained to act as though they knew each other- and not that they were just dicks. “Stan isn’t really on board with this whole publicity stunt thing. He seems to think it takes away from what we’re doing on our own.”

_It isn’t,_ Richie thought a little sadly. _Every publicity bullshit you have to go through to make it, you’re still doing it on our own. You’re still earning in._ But he’d never say anything so reassuring, as he didn’t plan on making it easier on anybody so Richie just smiled. “I’m pretty sure that none of us wanted this, sweets.”

Richie squeezed Eddie’s hip a little bit tighter and Eddie jerked to look at Richie. “ _Obviously.”_ Eddie replied, voice dripping with venom and hand coming out to squeeze Richie’s fingers.

A boy with broad shoulders and chubby cheeks glanced awkwardly between them, and scratched the back of his neck. “Alright, well… I’m going to go check on Stan, but uh- Richie, you should come out for drinks later tonight, we’ll get to know you better-“

“Oh, I’m sure Richie doesn’t want to,” Eddie quickly said, leaning away from Richie slightly. Richie used his grip to pull Eddie back towards him.

“Oh, Richie _doesn’t_ want to,” Richie said sweetly. “But he probably should, and will likely get in trouble with the big boss if he doesn’t. I’ll bring Audra with me, so that you’ll be able to have some friendly conversation while I sit there and look pretty as Eds arm candy.”

“Oh, gross,” Eddie let out a disgusted noise, pushing Richie away and seeming to remember the last moment to make it look the playful. “Do not fucking call me that. I hate nicknames.”

“Ohhhhh, Ed Edd and Eddy, you just made a big mistake telling me that.”

xxx

“Why.” Richie moaned from where he was resting against the front door of his and Audra’s house. He was wearing the outfit that his best friend had picked out for him, as well as his best pout. The outfit was nice, very nice- fitted dark blue jeans and a tight white button up that he knew held against what little muscles his figure managed to hold but Richie didn’t _want_ a nice outfit. He never wanted it to look like he was looking good for Eddie. “He doesn’t deserve it!”

Audra knelt down in front of him, looking the goddess she always did, and smiled. “Don’t think of it as dressing up for Eddie. Think of it as proving to Eddie that you’re a hot piece of ass and he’s fucking lucky to have the privilege of people believing you two are in a relationship.”

Richie smiled up at her, closing his eyes. “You’re the only person in this entire world worth a damn to me. Marry me?”

Audra clicked her tongue, and patted Richie on top on the head. Her head her fingers moving away, then returning. A coat fell over Richie’s body and he looked up at his impatient looking best friend. “You’re the one who signed up for this. Get  up, we’re going.”

“I never refused to go,” Richie pointed out, accepting Audra’s outstretched hand and letting himself be hoisted to his feet. “I just don’t wanna get dressed up.”

“You’re actually wearing less layers than usual,” Audra said, pushing Richie out the front door. The pub where they were meeting Eddie and the his bandmates was just down the road from where Richie and Audra lived, and they knew their regular orders. It was about as close to a lowkey place that you could find in mainstream L.A and the only place that Richie ever really felt comfortable going out to. They knew Richie’s tricks and schemes, and _actually_ how Richie could his drinks.

It was a nice place, that managed to seem small and tight knit while actually being a rather large place, and Richie instantly felt warmed when he came inside. Wrapping an arm around Audra’s waist, he held her over to their table. He’d made that sure that Eddie’s band mates knew where to sit, because Richie Tozier was beyond a creature of habit.

He caught Eddie’s eye through the crowds of people, moving to tables and getting drinks, and Eddie gave him half a smile. Richie nodded in acknowledgment and was part way to the table when he was intercut by the serious boy from the photoshoot earlier. His hair was just as proper as it had been when the shoot had been taking place, and Richie figured that Beverly would never have to do much work with this guy. She was going to love that.

“I’ve been told that I owe you an apology,” The man- Stan, if Richie recalled correctly, and he usually did, said. He scuffed his surprising of Converse sneakers into the pub floor.

‘And what’s brought you to that conclusion, sweetheart?” Richie cooed as he let Audra pushed past them towards the table with the others. He made a point to remember not to let his posture be too stand offish, because he was aware that he was supposed to already be friends with that guy.

The guy who looked pretty uncomfortable right now, as though he didn’t apologize very often. “It was brought to my attention that it’s not your fault that Eddie has sold out his artistic integrity, and that I shouldn’t take my aggression towards Eddie out on you.”

Richie pursed his lips. “I’m going to be real with you for a second here, man. You might be being a little hard on Eds. He’s got the right idea. I can promise you, there’s nobody in this industry that isn’t a fucking sell out. If you start out with a sell out, then at least nobody can accuse you of it later. Get started with your hands tied, and you won’t be played for a fool.”

Stan narrowed his eyes, looking over Richie’s face carefully. “You’re not like I expected you to be. I just assumed that you’re be some big name asshole.”

“I am a big name asshole!” Richie cried, a little annoyed at just how whiney and offended he sounded.

Stan gave him a little hint of a smile. “Nah, you’re not. If you were an asshole, you would have just let me talk shit about Eddie since it’s obvious you don’t like him. But you defended him.”

“I didn’t defend him for _him.”_ Richie said, narrowing his eyes and crossing his arms. “I only said what was true. Be as mad at him as you wish, I think it’s hilarious that you guys are already having conflict and you haven’t dropped a single yet. It’s cute that you think you can have a career that way.”

Stan’s small smile turned into a grin. “That’s a solid effort. Very appreciated.”

Richie scowled as Stan turned and began to walk back towards their table. Grumbling under his breath, Richie followed him. The table was filled with the only seat available being so close to beside Eddie that Richie might as well sit down on his lap. He’d known that he was going to have to sit beside Eddie, of course, but he hadn’t counted on it looking like foreplay. Rolling his eyes, Richie squished in beside Eddie and tried to damnedest to look as though he was happy about it.

“About time,” Eddie said cheekily, letting his hand slid along Richie’s thigh and squeezing at it. Richie turned and smiled at him at softly as he could manage with pure irritation pulsing through his veins. “Thought you were going to spend the entire night standing over there flirting with my guitarist. Wouldn’t be good for our image, baby.”

“Oh, _baby,”_ Richie cooed, patting Eddie cheek lightly. “You don’t have an image to look bad yet. You’re just my new cute little arm candy. Probably going to want to turn off your Twitter notifs.”

Eddie’s face seemed to fall, and his shoulders hunched up slightly around his shoulders. There was something about him then, some sort of hint at vulnerability and innocence that it brought Richie pause. There was a short moment of remorse that thickened in Richie’s gut before Eddie slapped on a smirk and leaned back in the booth seats.

“Okay, yeah.,” Eddie drawled with a laugh. “I mean, it’s easy for you to say, isn’t it? It’s a little harder to get your name known when you have to work for it yourself.”

Richie’s dislike for Eddie Kaspbrak came back so fast it almost gave him whip lash. “You’re _not_ doing it yourself, though, are you?” Richie challenge quickly, stepping all the fuck over the words he’d told Stan just minutes earlier. “I’m doing it for you.”

Eddie was openly glowering at him now, and Richie knew goddamn well how terrible this moment would look if anybody got it captured. Not that Richie cared all that much about whether Eddie and his band’s career took off, but if Richie messed this up for the management he knew that he’d be facing people a lot scarier than Kay McCall. Sighing, he grabbed Eddie’s hand that was still resting on his thigh and pulled Eddie out the booth.

Eddie made no complaint the whole way through the bar and simply raised his brow at Richie as he pushed them into the bathroom and closed the door. “Are we going to make out?” Eddie asked, eyeing Richie up and down slowly. “Because you look really good right now, but there’s no cameras in here so I don’t really see the point.”

“Are we going to… NO!” Richie shook his head harshly, wanting to bang his head against the stall door. He could practically feel the body heat radiating from Eddie’s body and yeah… okay, _maybe_ it was making him a little dizzy but that wasn’t the point here. Underneath everything, Richie Tozier was human after all.

Eddie leaned back up against the stall, crossing one leg in front of the other. “You know, this is fun and all- I like how you’re eyes go all wide and out of focus when you’re trying not to loose your shit but- you don’t drag me into bathrooms for now reason. Want to get to the point, hon?”

“You’ve got a lot too learn.” Richie said slowly, shaking his head slowly and eyes flashing. He watched the way Eddie’s eyes trailed his body and his blood rushed up to the back of his neck.

Eddie took a few steps forward, hand coming to rest in the middle of Richie’s chest. His fingers flecked and got caught up in the fabric of his shirt. He looked up at Richie through his lashes and smiled. “Are you going to teach me, then?”  

Richie let out a shaky breath, bringing his hands up and rubbing at his eyes. This fucking kid… “Dude, you are greener than a blond girl with big boobs at her first CW audition that thinks flirting with the director is a good idea. Get off me.” Eddie stepped backwards immediately, holding his hands up and looking slightly intimidated. “You’ve got big balls, kid, I’ll give you that.”

Eddie looked momentarily confused, a little child-like, and bit down on his bottom lip. “I don’t… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Richie clucked his tongue and shook his head. “I can’t decide if you’re stupid or just asshole.”

“Bold of you to assume I’m not both.”

Richie clenched his jaw, ready to snap, but before he could get angry he found laughter bubbling up in his chest. Cupping his hands back up over his face, Richie allowed himself a few moments to laugh. When he lowered his hands away once again, Eddie was looking at him with a surprisingly soft yet confused smile. “You know…” Richie said, clearing his throat. “I’m pretty sure you’re a little bitch, but at least you’re an entertaining one.”

Eddie’s smile turned into a grin. “So does that mean you _do_ want to make out?”

Smirking himself, Richie slammed both hands on either side of Eddie’s head and leaned in. Eddie’s head thumped back against the metal stall, and Richie watched as his pupil’s blew out while staring up at Richie with wide eyes. Richie knocked their noses together and chuckled.

“No.”

Richie let himself out of the stall, fighting back the giggles, while Eddie stared at the air where Richie’s body had just been in a wonderful mix of betrayal and admiration.  


	3. Chapter 3

Richie was woken up by a heavy weight bouncing onto the bed beside him. He yelped, gripping angrily at the edge of his mattress as he nearly tumbled off while Audra continuing bouncing on her knees. 

“RICHIE! GET UP! RICHARD!” Audra shook Richie’s shoulder until he groaned angrily and swatted at his best friend. 

He hunched his shoulders up towards his ears and glowered at her. “You better not be waking me up because of that fuking recording studio shit.It’s not until 11, and I have an alarm set! Let me live!”

Audra yanked the blanket away from Richie’s body and tossed towards the bottom of Richie’s bed. “It’s  _ not  _ about that, but I do think you should take it a little bit more seriously. Nobody’s going to believe it, if you don’t start acting like it’s real.”

Richie rolled his eyes. It had been nearly four weeks since his management had demanded that he parade around with some pretty little songbird on his arm as though they were madly in love, and Richie could admit that he hadn’t seen much of the guy at all. After the awkwardness at the bar between them, he’d been giving Eddie a wide berth. There had been a few arranged meetings- enough that Eddie’s face showed up in tabloids and people Googled who Eddie was. His band’s YouTube channel and SoundCloud had skyrocketed in the last couple weeks, and the management felt now would be a good time to start dropping their singles. Richie was, of course, was expected to be present at the final recording today, if only to be spotted going in and out of the building with Eddie. He was still looking for a way to get out of actually having to sit through the recording process, simply because he’d gone this far without hearing Eddie Kaspbrak sing and he’d like to keep that trend up as long as possible. 

Audra hit him with a pillow, and he tossed his hand out to whack at her shoulder. “ _ Richard. _ ” She said, an absolute overjoyed smile covering her face. She held her phone out-stretch towards him, wiggling it in his face. “They nominated you for an Oscar!” 

Richie felt as though he went through twenty emotions all at once and didn’t seem to express any of them. He blinked once, and rolled to sit up in his bed. “Guess I’ll take a shower since I’m up anyway.”

He watched how Audra’s face fell and instantly felt bad. He supposed that he should have tried a little harder to act enthusiastic- or tried at all, really- but with the amount of things he was going to have to pretend to feel today, this just wasn’t something he could bring up the strength to do. “Look, I’ll send out a Tweet about being thankful later, I promise. It’s not like I’m going to win it.”

Audra made a wounded noise sound as Richie stood and moved past her towards the bathroom. “That’s so negative! You can’t go into this with such bullshit opinions of yourself! You’re a good actor, Richie!”

Richie rolled his eyes, and yanked his boxers down. He reached into the shower, and pulled the water on. Holding his hand under the stream to feel it warm up to his preferred temperature, he looked back over to Audra. “Okay, first of all- we both know this isn’t about having talent.” Richie continued to rush through as Audra opened her mouth to speak. “And also? That movie was absolute shit. If I had been up for like…  _ Rage…  _ then maybe I could see it. But  _ Secret Window?  _ Ohhh dude kills his wife, big fucking plot twist. We know that if it had been anything less than written and directed by Bill Denbrough that it would have been some trash ass straight-to-Netflix shit.”

“That doesn’t mean your performance was bad.” Audra challenged, but Richie could tell the words were weak. Richie had barely even bothered to memorize the lines for the movie, convinced that it was going to flop whether he worked for it or not. He’d only agreed to do it as a favour to Bill, who had given him so many good roles that he figured it wouldn’t hurt to do a bad one. He remembered being shocked how breaking the film had been and was now even a little bit insulted that it was the role he was being nodded over. 

“I haven’t been up for an award since my Teen Choice days.” Richie chuckled. “Most people don’t jump straight from the surfboard to the golden statue. No matter how many years have passed in between.” Audra was still glaring at him and Richie sighed. “Are you done lecturing me? I’m getting in the shower.”

“I am absolutely not done!” Audra said firmly, grabbing the ends of her nightshirt and heaving it over her head. Richie rolled his eyes, stepping under the water and feeling Audra slide in behind him. They settled under the spray and Audra placed her hands on her hips, glaring up at him. ”You’re not giving yourself enough credit, Rich. As usual. You were  _ good  _ in the movie, you played crazy really well! I think it’s one of your best roles, personally. You  _ deserved  _ to be nominated. Take it for the compliment that it is.”

Richie huffed out a breath, pouring some of Audra’s pomegranate shampoo into his hands and reaching to rub it into her hair.  “But I don’t take it as compliment. This is just something that is going to make my life more complicated. An excuse to push me into doing more bullshit publicity- and I have enough of that going on.” 

Audra raised one eyebrow at him, likely trying to look intimidating but falling flat with the her hair piled up top of her head in a white foam. Richie tried not to laugh. “Not everything is a big scheme with ulterior motives. You’re paranoid as fuck.” 

Richie pushed his thumbs against Audra’s chin and encouraged her to tilt her head under the spray. “I don’t know how you aren’t more paranoid, honestly. You really just take things at face value.”

“Not everything,” Audra said, rubbing the soap into Richie’s face a little more aggressively than he felt was necessary. “But sometimes I think it’s okay to believe that something is just a nice thing. No strings attached.”

“There’s always strings.”

 

Richie waltzed into the recording room, trying to ignore Beverly’s other excited chattering in his ear. Like Audra, she seemed to believe that this nomination was a good thing. What wanted nothing more than to never hear the word “Oscar” again- all apologies to people with the name. He had already resigned himself to having a long couple of weeks, but he was already close to snapping when he noticed Kay perking up at the sight of him. 

“Richie! Congratulation-” She hadn’t even finished getting the words out before Richie was waving her off impatiently and dropped himself into one of free cars in the room. He pulled his phone out, but simply scrolled mindlessly through his own photo gallery because the last thing he wanted to do was look anywhere near his social media. 

“He’s in little bitch mode,” Beverly said, coming into the room and immediately going to fuss over Ben’s hair. “Just let him stew in it. Auds probably woke him up and you know how he gets when he doesn’t get at least ten hours.” 

Richie held his middle finger high above his head and clenched his jaw as he heard the laughter bounce through the small room. 

“What are we congratulating Richie for?” Eddie’s voice came then, and Richie couldn’t help glancing up at him. He was wearing a pair of seemingly fitted beige khakis and an  _ actual  _ pink polo shirt, complete with a collar and everything. He looked the perfect boyfriend to some Disney Channel Mary Sue, and it made the back of Richie’s neck burn. “Did he finally find a thrift store that accepts thousand dollars bills?”

God, he barely knew him and yet Eddie Kaspbrak could get under his skin like nobody ever had before. It seemed that he knew just the exact right words to make Richie bristle, and his soul was trained for the exact right moment to toss them out. 

“He was nominated for his first Oscar,” Beverly answered, even just  _ sounding  _ like she was rolling her eyes. “And he seems to think that it’s the end of the world.”

“His first?” Eddie’s face seemed confused as he turned to look over at Richie. Richie held his gaze, daring Eddie to piss him off. Eddie just hummed, and turned back to fiddling with his headphones. “I’d have thought you already had at least one.” 

Richie narrowed his eyes, brain still trying to decide if that was an insult or not when Stan stormed into the room. “I’m not doing this fucking song. I’m  _ not.”  _

“Stan you wrote the song, babe.” Ben said softly, Beverly still nit-picking at individual strands of Ben’s hair as though he was going to be on camera at all outside of potential pap pics. 

Stan glared at his boyfriend, but the look he cast in Eddie’s direction immediately after was much colder. “I wrote it three years ago, and I didn’t even want to record it for the album. It doesn’t match our sound.” 

“It’s a good song, Stanley.” Eddie said sharply, sounding more irritated than Richie had ever heard him before. “It’s strong lyrically, and we’re all well practised in it. And it’ll be a good hook to get people to start listening to us seriously.”

“I don’t want to hook people in by releasing a song that doesn’t sound like any of the rest of the album, Eddie.” Stan’s voice was cold. “Unless, of course, you want to change that, too. We’ve made so many compromises this far, why not?” 

Eddie’s shoulders went stiff, his eyes shutted shut and his jaw clenched. Richie marvelled that Eddie Kaspbrak was actually kind of hot when he was pissed off. “The record needs the finished product by midnight, Stanley. We’ve put this off long enough- we’re doing the song.”

Stan looked for a moment like he might keep arguing, but Ben came over and guided him into their booth. They, along with Mike, started mingling around inside with their instruments and Eddie stared blankly at them for a long moment before sighing and moving inside to join his bandmates. Richier couldn’t help staring after Eddie’s departure. Once he was sure that Eddie and his friends had been behind the soundproof area, he turned to Kay and shook his head. “You’re blowing a lot of money on this band. They aren’t going to make it.”

“You haven’t even heard on them yet.” Kay said simply, leaning over the music techs and pointing at certain keys on the board. 

“I don’t need to hear them,” Richie said with a shrug. “They could be the most talented band since Queen, and they still aren’t going to make it if they can’t find a way to get along.” Kay pursed her lips and he watched as Beverly turned away nervously. He knew he was right, and he didn’t need an verbally confirmation. He’d told them as much when they’d talked in the bars all those weeks ago- if they conflict this early on, they were doomed to fall apart. It certainly seemed that the drift between Stanley and Eddie had only grown larger since then. Whether Stan was still mad about this little stunt, or if Eddie had done something else since then, Richie wasn’t sure. But he knew it wouldn’t spell anything good for them, if they didn’t work it out soon.

Kay gave Richie a quick signal to shut up, and pressed down on the SPEAK button. “Okay, guys. We’ve burned a lot of time, so we’re going to get right into it. On your four count.”

The other three men all pushed their instruments into place, as Eddie wrapped his hands around the hanging mic and leaned towards it. Some music that might have passed for punk, but definitely leaned more towards pop, came from them as Eddie took a deep breath. 

“ _ Used to keep it cool, used to be a fool, all about the bounce in my step… Watch it on the news, whatcha gonna do, I could hit refresh and forget... _ ” 

Richie tried not to look impressed, staring stubbornly at his phone. Eddie definitely had the voice for this, and he’d been right about the song being good lyrically. He remembered that when Kay first mentioned them, she’d called them an alternative band… and this was no alternative song. It would do well in the Top 40s- which was no doubt their management’s intention, and what was making Stanley so distressed. It was a sell out, for sure, but if they stuck with it then nobody except them would ever know. That was the way to do it, but it seemed that Eddie’s bandmates might put up a fight about it. 

Richie let himself look at Eddie, seeming so Ken-Barbie like in his preppy clothes. It certainly didn’t fit the sound they wanted to sell, and barely fit that in which it seemed like were going to sell. Eddie looked like some Jesse McCartney, 2009 Justin Bieber ass mother fucker. He couldn’t believe Beverly had let it fly for this long.

“ _ Watch me stand in the line, you’re only serving lies, you’ve got something to hide…” _

As they wrapped, and the band came fumbling out of the soundbooth, Richie mimicked gagging loudly as Eddie exited. Eddie looked wounded for a moment, before seeming to realize it was Richie mocking him, and quickly flipped his fake boyfriend off. Richie chuckled and pushed to his feet. He patted Stan between the shoulder and nodded at him. “It is a good song, man. Take it as a compliment that they chose it, even if it’s not the one you wanted.” 

He was hyper aware of Beverly muttering something about him being a fucking hypocrite, and smirked as he turned to face Eddie. He looked the boy up and down, and wrinkled up his face.”Do you own anything that didn’t come from Aeropostale in 2009?”

Eddie gave him an equally disgusted look in return. “Not really.”

“We’ll have to change that.” It had been a general “we”. It had been  _ such  _ an general we. The most general of we’s. We as in Eddie and somebody who was  _ not Richie.  _ Then Beverly took it upon herself to walk up to them, and placed a hand on each of their shoulders. 

“I’ve been thinking the same thing! Eddie really needs a new look!” Beverly cheered, looking overly smug. “It’s so nice of you to offer to take him, Rich!”

“What?” Richie gasped as Eddie’s mouth dropped open in matching shock. “No, I- I didn’t- I-” But Beverly was already winking at him and walking back to talk to Kay. No doubt to tell her all about how Richie was going to be taking Eddie out to buy new clothes, leaving Richie with no choice but to actually do so. Eddie clearly couldn’t be trusted to purchase his own clothes- hence what he was wearing now- but Richie genuinely hadn’t been expecting to be thrust into that terrible responsibility. 

Eddie, to his own credit, looked rather horrified. “You want  _ him  _ to pick out clothes for me? Him? Look at him!” Eddie gestured towards Richie’s outfit, was which- admittedly- rather wild today. He’d paired the skinniest jeans he could find in his closet- a bright, hot pink- with a green shirt covered in cactus’. If you looked closely enough to it, you could see the words  _ don’t be a prick  _ written all over it. “Dude looks like a kiwi!”

Richie huffed. “Look, man. I’m not thrilled about it, either. The less time I have to spent with you the better.”

“I’m a fucking  _ delight,  _ I’ll have you know!” Eddie snapped, Richie watching how his jaw clenched and his eyes flashed. Richie tilted his head to the side, smiling slightly. Eddie’s cheeks began to flush and Richie’s soft smile turned into a wolfish grin. 

“Let’s just go, yeah?” Richie said, trying to keep his tone light and friendly. This would be unbearable if Eddie spent the entire time in a funk. “Everybody likes shopping, and you have an endless supply of company money to do it with.” 

Eddie was still eyeing him warily. “Promise I’m not going to end up dressing like you?”

“Sweetie. Nobody dresses like me.” 

Richie took hold of Eddie’s hand as soon as they stepped into the open parking lot. He felt the way the other boy stiffened, and squeezed as he feared Eddie would pull away. “We have to look like we’re dating,” Richie whispered to him, leaning close enough that their bodies rested together. “There’s going to be a hundred fucking teen bops here, your single drops tonight, and I was just nominated for an award. Eyes are going to be on us.”

“Maybe we’ve picked the wrong day to do this,” Eddie said lightly as he and Richie began walking into the fluorescent light mall. 

Richie laughed, small and seemingly genuine. “Kid. From here on out, there’s never going to be a good day to do things. Didn’t you get the  _ you’re-gonna-be-famous  _ crash course? You’re never going to be doing anything again without eyes on you.”

Eddie was quiet for such a long time that Richie eventually had to turn and look at him. Eddie’s hand felt so small in his own, and when he looked at Eddie- he looked small, too. Young. Richie knew they were the same age, give or take a few months, but he supposed that Eddie hadn’t had to grow up the way Richie had. There was still lingering youth in him, confusion about the world he was entering. Richie needed to remind himself that maybe Eddie Kaspbrak was a person under all that attitude. 

“Hey, listen.” Richie said, swinging his and Eddie’s joined hands to-and-fro. “It comes with the job. Today is going to be your first day when you absolutely don’t need to worry about money, like at all. I remember the first time I was handed a credit card and let loose in a mall. It was a religious experience.” 

Eddie looked Richie up and down, and Richie fully expected another comment about Richie’s choice in clothes but Eddie just frowned. “And you were what? Ten? Even younger?” Richie gave a non-committed hum. He’d been seven when his mother had handed him his first credit card with his own name on it. “I feel bad for you. You have all this stuff, but you’ve never really been allowed to live.” 

“I can do whatever I want,” Richie said, wondering if he was convincing Eddie or himself. “I just get in trouble when I do something wrong.” 

“I’d wanted to be an actor, when I was little.” Eddie said. “I begged my dad to let me go to auditions, and he told me if I really wanted to be famous- I could wait until I was an adult. He said if you wanted to put your kids into show business, you might as well skip the show business part and stick them right in rehab.” 

Richie pursed his lips, wondering how much about his life Eddie actually knew. Somethings could easily be found online, but those facts were never quite right. Even if they came from direct sources. “Your dad sounds like a smart guy. How’d he let you get into a situation like this?” 

“He died when I was eleven. Cancer.” Eddie said it so nonchalantly, and Richie felt he might have given himself whiplash turning to look at him. “It was just me and Ma after that, and she wouldn’t hear anything about being famous. Wanted me to stay in Maine, working at some pharmacy downtown, until I died. Made me want it more.”

“So, you’re becoming famous out of spite.” Richie said lightly, always one to dodge any emotional conversation that he could. “I can dig that.” 

“I’m trying to become famous because it’s what I’ve always wanted.” Eddie pointed out, clearly trying to control the annoyance on his face. He was already smart enough to know that pictures of them seemingly having a fight shouldn’t be circling so quickly into their relationship. “My Ma was just a big push factor.”

Richie nodded, and then pressed a kiss to the top of Eddie’s head for good measure. Eddie’s eyes went a little wide, but he seemed to manage his shock well otherwise. “We’re going to start here,” Richie said, gesturing towards the Turtle Shack. 

Eddie eyed it a little apprehensively. “Do you show there?” 

Richie actually laughed, gesturing his free hand towards the store full of blues, blacks and grays.  “Does it  _ look  _ like I’d buy anything from there? No, Eddie. If you’re going to be the frontman of some emo alternative band, you can’t walk around looking like Chad Michael Murray.” 

“Who?” Eddie asked, frowning. Richie just rolled his eyes, and tugged Eddie into the store. He didn’t have the time or patience to deal with how it seemed that Eddie Kaspbrak had been raised under a big rock in Maine. Were there mountains in Maine? If so, Eddie was probably raised in one. With wolves. Wolves that wore cardigans. 

Richie grabbed several shirts and hoodies off the racks and tossed them at Eddie, hardly giving them a full glance. He was firm believer, right now, that anything was an improvement. Eddie didn’t seem convinced, judging by the way he was turning up his nose at them. “Why am I doing this? I don’t get why I have to change my clothes. It feels like lying.”

“Oh, what?” Richie laughed, brushing his hand along his jawline. “ _ Now  _ you’re worried about lying? Try the clothes on, Edward. I was told to take you shopping, and we’re getting you clothes. I don’t care if you ever wear them after this. But you will.”

Eddie scowled, then seemed to remember himself. He came forward and kissed Richie’s cheek quickly, smiling shyly up at him. Batting his eyelashes, and even seeming to blush somehow. “Thanks, baby.” 

Richie watched Eddie duck into the change room, shaking his head and knowing his expression was perfectly awestruck. Eddie could have done well, if he’d stuck with his first dream of going into acting. Richie fiddled around with the long racks of pants, fitted and ripped, picking out six or seven. He knocked on the door. “I’ve got pants for you.”

“You’re trying to get me out of my pants, too?” Eddie called over to him through the door. He opened it, already wearing one of the dark Tees. It was a Nirvana shirt, that Richie was sure that he had a matching hiding somewhere in the back of his closet. Taking his shirt off, and placing another on, had left Eddie’s hair flopping out of it’s usually primly styles swoop. He could see the natural curls that Eddie’s hair held, and it was a little endearing. 

“Your hair looks good like that.” Richie said, dropping the pants into Eddies hands. Eddie raised his eyebrows and frowned. “Women love the messy look. You could do for that sort of extra boost in popularity.”

“I don’t really  _ care  _ what women find attractive.” Eddie said, smirking. He was joking, probably, but Richie wasn’t in the mood to let Eddie make dumb mistakes right now. 

“You should care.”Richie said seriously. “Whether you want to admit it or not, women are going to support your career. It doesn’t matter if you’re gay- they’ll love that, too- but most straight women are still going to want to imagine they could date you.”

Eddie lowered the clothes and suddenly seemed exhausted. “Richie, is anything even real? Everything I’ve done since signing our label has been changing myself, changing my stuff, and pissing off my friends. What’s the point?”

Richie pushed at Eddie’s shoulders and guided them into the dressing room together, knowing  _ that  _ was going make fun headlines. “Kid,” he said seriously, putting the clothes and hanging them up. “You’re too new at this to be so cynical about it. If you’re already not enjoying it, drop out now before it’s too late. But can I give you some advice and you promise not to let it make you think we’re friends?” 

“We’ll never be friends,” Eddie answered immediately, but with none that Kaspbrak sass that Richie had already come to recognize. He just sounded tired. 

Richie gave him a small smile. “There’s nothing wrong here.  You’ve maybe had a bit of a rough beginning, but once your stuff starts circulating and you smooth things over with Stanley, it’s going to be worth it. Just push through.” 

Eddie gave him a long, unreadable look then sighed. “Do I still have to get the clothes?”

“Yes.” Richie said with a firm nod. “You need them.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song Eddie’s band does is Burn the House Down by AJR. :) Shout out to @reddie-for-anything and @gamepunks for giving me a great list of songs that i didn’t use!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *sheepishly* Hey i'm sorry it's been literally ages since I've updated this fic, I got super caught up with all my other works but I'm back and hoping to update more regularly. Thanks for sticking by it!! <3

Richie whistled as he came into the apartment, happily swinging his keys around on his fingers, then slowed to a stop as he looked around the group of people in his living room. His eyes moved throughout them all, Audra and Kay both perched on either side of Richie’s favourite armchair. Mike from Eddie’s band was seated within the chair, while the rest of the group were laying across their couch. Well, Eddie was laying while both Stan and Ben were sitting perfectly acceptably. a

“Uh… hello people who don’t live here,” Richie said, with a raise of his eyebrow. He turned to Audra, jerking his head slightly to the side and pursed his lips.

Audra smirked happily up at him. “You know what today is, don’t you?”

Richie’s brain stalled, eyes narrowing. “It’s May 5th… Oh  _ no.”  _

Audra gave him a thick, Cheshire cat grin. Every year on the anniversary of their shows’ premiere, the network did a huge marathon of episodes for the entire day. A full 24 hours. They always started on the pilot, and always made it to the exact spot in season two every goddamn year. Richie knew it was because the cast- as it included himself and Audra- was easily one of the most popular programs they’d had for this generation, with some of the most successful cast. Audra, Kay and Beverly all insisted they watch it every year for the  _ quote  _ nostalgia. Richie forgot about it every single year, and was painfully ambushed every. Single. Year. He’d never been  _ this  _ caught off guard, however.

“Are we still doing this?” Richie asked Audra in a bored tone.

“Are you kidding?” Kay cackled. Eddie was eyeing her suspiciously, clearly never having seen her outside of her work personality before. “You’re nominated for an Oscar, Richie. They’re going to milk starting your career for all that it’s worth.”

Richie rolled his eyes, grabbing a handful of the sour cream chips on the coffee table. Eddie gave him a disgusted look. “I thought Audra was kidding when she said those were your favourites, but I guess you do just have terrible taste.”

“Not sure what you’re surprised about, Kaspbrak.” Richie said cheekily, wedging himself in between Ben and Eddie on the couch. “You’re constantly harping on about my terrible taste. Why are you suddenly so surprised?”

Eddie made an annoyed, grumbling noise and rolled his eyes towards Ben. Ben just smiled pleasantly, but there was some sort of interested amusement behind his eyes. Richie made a point to squirm between the two of them as the movies began to kick start, until Eddie’s hand came down and slammed onto Richie’s upper thigh. He squeezed, digging his nails into muscle. Richie let out a small squeak.

“Stop fucking moving,” Eddie hissed, narrowing his eyebrow threateningly. “Or I will you cut you off at the waist and you’ll never act again.”

“Bold of you to assume I enjoy acting,” Richie said, words falling from his mouth without really thinking about it. There was something about this Kaspbrak kid that made him blurt out his much more inner thoughts that rarely let see the light of day.

Eddie wrinkled his brow, seeming to lean a little bit closer into Richie’s space. Just as Richie was getting ready to launch himself off the couch and a find a place to sit, much further away from Eddie, Audra let out a shout about the a certain scene that she always got excited about. Eddie pulled away from Richie’s space, but his hand stayed resting on Richie’s thigh. No longer squeezing, or with blunt nails digging into muscles, but simply resting there. 

Richie’s body felt way too hot, and tried to focus on the romantic scene unfolding between himself and Audra’s characters on screen. It was weird to look at them, playing love interests when they’d barely known each other. Richie had still had such high expectations of fame back then, head full of stories of people falling in love with co-stars and living happily ever after. He’d been half-obsessed with Audra Phillips for half a year before he came to his senses. He may make movies for a living, but his life wasn’t a movie.

“God, these movies get worse every year,” Kay laughed, taking a hit off of the joint that Beverly handed her before easily handing it back. Eddie stared at them, gape mouthed, then turned to Richie with wide eyes. A look of concern seemed to settle over Eddie’s face, him mouthing “are you okay?” and Richie frowned. 

“If these movies are so terrible,” Richie said, patting his hands onto his knees. “Then we can watch something else. Please. I beg you.”

“It’s a tradition, Tozier!” Audra cried, the joint now settling between her fingers as she giggled slightly. 

“Traditions are meant to be broken.” Richie challenged, pointing at her. “Besides, it’s not a tradition for everybody here. They shouldn’t have to suffer through this crap.”

“I’m actually enjoying it,” Stan pitched in, shooting Richie a grin. “It’s nice to remember how terrible quality everything was when we were young.”

Ben let out a soft sigh. “I’ve always loved these movies. I remember being so disappointed when I found out Richie and Audra weren’t dating in real life.”

“Gross,” Richie and Audra both laughed in unison. The light, mostly carefree moment just cut through by the sound of Britney Spears’  _ Overprotected  _ ringing through the room. Eddie let out a soft groan and pull his phone out of his jean pocket.

“You don’t have to answer it.” Stan stared at Eddie with serious eyes and a firm set frown. 

Eddie frowned down at still ringing device. “She won’t stop until I do. Sorry guys.” Eddie stood up and looked towards Richie. “Where’s your room?”

“Last on the left.” Richie replied, clearing his throat awkwardly. Eddie nodded a little cruelty and disappeared down the hall. Richie heard his bedroom door come closed, and they could hear Eddie’s muffled voice as he answered the phone.

The others tried to keep a steady conversation going over the sound of Eddie’s phone call, but Eddie’s voice got louder and louder until they heard a very distinct,  _ Fuck you!,  _ followed by a thump. Richie swallowed at the rough feeling of unease that was settled in his chest now, standing up slowly. 

“I’m going to go make sure he isn’t breaking any of my stuff.” Richie said softly, standing up and squeezing out of the living room full of people. He caught Stan’s eye as he walked past, not enjoying how Stan smirked at him. 

He considered knocking on the door, before realizing it was a little stupid to knock on his own bedroom door and then let himself in. Eddie was sitting on the edge of Richie’s bed, staring at the iPhone resting at his feet. He didn’t look up as Richie came in.

“Hey, buddy,” Richie said lightly, moving to sit beside him. “How ya doin?”

“It was my mom.” Eddie offered up the information without being asked. Richie raised his brow and let Eddie carry on. “She just fucking…  _ refuses  _ to accept that I’m doing this. Keeps asking when I’m going to give this up, to come home. Always saying that I won’t make it, that I’m wasting so much money and time and that it won’t work out. It’s so… fucking irritating.” 

“Yeah, parents are like that.” Richie said with a sigh. “If it means anything at all, Eddie, I think you’re doing a pretty great job. Don’t worry about what your mom thinks. You can do this shit. It’s not as hard as it sounds, you’re already more than halfway there. Prove her wrong.” 

Eddie moved slightly, looking carefully at Richie’s face. Richie, in turn, was looking at Eddie wearing the clothes he’d picked out for him. Even though he didn’t need to be, he wasn’t doing anything today. He was just… wearing them. 

He realized then that Eddie’s face was very close to his. “How long do you think they’re going to make us keep dating?” Eddie asked, voice barely a more than a whisper. 

“Uhm.” Richie licked his bottom lip. “Probably until after your album drops. Maybe once you guys go on your first tour. That’ll be an easy way to set up a break up. Travelling and shit.”

Eddie’s hand came up to cup at Richie’s cheek, thumb stroking at his cheekbone. “So it’ll just me and you for a while then… Don’t you think we should make the most of it?”

“Eddie…” Richie breathed out but Eddie seemed to push right through his words, sealing their lips together. He leaned right into Richie’s space, letting their chest press together as he dragged his hands up from Richie’s cheeks to tangle in his hair. 

Richie brought an arm around Eddie’s waist, pulling him closer and taking a moment to soak up the touch. He barely remember the last time he’d been with somebody like this, and his body screamed with excitement.

He pulled his mouth back, pressing his nose into Eddie’s cheek. He fluttered his eyes closed. “Are you sure about this, Kaspbrak?” Richie breathed out. “There’s no going back from this. This is the line.”

Eddie chuckled, Richie able to feel it against his cheek. “Dude… we’re not going to be sleeping with anybody else any time soon and you’re hot.. In a way, disaster sort of way.” Eddie pressed wet, open mouthed kisses to Richie’s cheek. “So. Are you going to  _ fuck me  _ or not?”

Richie squeezed Eddie’s hips and pushed him back against the mattress. Eddie’s hair fanned out over the dark comforter and Richie nipped at his bottom lip. Eddie sighed happily and rocked his hips up against Richie’s thigh. “As you wish, Eds.”

Eddie shook his head, pulling apart Richie’s shirt and tossing it towards the floor. “I’ve wanted this since that night at the bar.”

Richie waggled his eyebrows as he could Eddie’s shirt off in return. “I know,” He replied honestly. Eddie gave him an annoyed look, but Richie leaned down to run his tongue along Eddie’s chest and annoyance seeped out of him. Eddie moaned as Richie used his teeth to pull on Eddie’s trail. “Fuck…” Eddie moaned as Richie started to palm at his dick through his jeans. “Richie.”

“I knew you’d look fucking amazing in these jeans, Eds,” Richie breathed, not even entirely sure if he was speaking to Eddie in truth just letting those words hit the universe and be true. “So fucking good, these thighs… I could suffocate in them.”

Eddie kicked his legs. “Take them  _ off,  _ genius. Everything looks better underneath.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt it.” Richie shifted onto his knees as he pulled Eddie’s belt and zipper open, dragging the jeans down Eddie’s legs. He left his briefs in place, leaning down to press soft kisses Eddie’s cock through the fabric. 

Eddie whimpered, pulling at Richie’s curls. “Fuck, Richie. Fuck. Blow me  _ please! _ ” 

“Since you asked so nicely.” Richie was being overly arrogant and he knew it, but it made Eddie whine and buck his hips so he wasn’t worrying about it too much. “But I thought you wanted me to fuck you?”

Eddie yanked on Richie’s curls. “Just make me  _ come,  _ jackass!” 

Richie chuckled, and pulling Eddie free from his briefs. Licking at head, Richie let his eyes flutter closed and get lost in the moment. Eddie was quickly riding into his mouth, moaning and whimpering above him, and Richie was sure that he was going to come right in his pants like some idiot. 

He pulled off Eddie’s cock, massaging at his balls as he used his second hand to pull his own pants open. He began to stroke at his own cock as he leaned back down to take Eddie into his mouth. Eddie began quickly bucking into his mouth, prompting Richie to groan around him. 

“Fuck… fuck… fuck….” Eddie’s thighs were trembling around Richie’s head and he could feel Eddie’s stomach caving in with every breath he took. Richie knew it was coming even if Eddie didn’t warn him. He moaned as Eddie released into his mouth, the feeling ripping an orgasm from Richie’s overly excited body.  

When Eddie whimpered from overstimulation, Richie pulled back and whipped at his mouth with the back of his hand. Eddie stared at him with wide eyes. “Oh my  _ God,  _ did you swallow that?”

Richie blinked at him blankly. “I mean… you didn’t give me make of a choice there, Edward.” 

Eddie flushed deeply and glanced towards the door to Richie’s bedroom. “Do you think they heard us?”

“You weren’t  _ exactly quiet.”  _

“Fuck.”

“Yeah. Just like that.” 

 


	5. Chapter 5

_ “You can’t keep behaving like this, Richard.” Kay McCall told him, pulling out the deepest of in-charge voices. Richie just started back up at her, knowing exactly how he looked. The deep bags under his eyes, the blotchiness of his skin. The blank expression. But he couldn’t be bothered to give her anything to work with. Not this Kay.  _

_ She seemed to realize it, too. She gave a sigh and came around to his side of the desk, kneeling in front of him. “Rich, I’m serious. If you don’t clean yourself up, they’re going to drop you from this branch.” _

_ Richie tried to force himself to look at Kay. “I don’t really give a fuck what they do.” _

“You okay?” Eddie broke through Richie’s revolving memories, rolling over in the bed and pressing his bare body against Richie’s equally naked one. Richie got the same tickle in his throat that he always got whenever Eddie Kaspbrak seemed to express genuine concern about him, unable to help himself from thinking that it was wrong for it to exist in this situation. 

They weren’t anything to each other. Just two dudes being forced to date each other publicly, and were maybe getting their rocks off together once a day for the last couple of weeks Sometimes more than once a day. There was the one day of the seven times and well... Richie’s skin grew hot just thinking about it. 

Richie grabbed at Eddie’s hips and rolled them so Eddie was pressed on top of him, pushing up at press open mouthed kisses to Eddie’s neck. Eddie sighed happily, and rutted down against Richie. It was something that Richie had been more than thrilled to learn once this whole thing had started; Eddie got hard so damn fast. Sometimes Richie had to shoot him a certain look, and he could see Eddie starting to squirm. 

But another thing about him, a much less enjoyable thing for Richie, was his one track mind. Eddie Kaspbrak was not a person easily distracted, even while rapidly growing hard against Richie’s thigh. “What are you thinking about, Richie?”

And that fucking question. Eddie asked that question too much. Tried to get into Richie’s head too much. Sometimes it was like he was already in there, without permission, with the little knowing and worried looks that Richie would see on his face whenever Richie did some things. Like he knew that Richie was beginning to dwell on something, or still dwelling on it, and that wasn’t talking about it.

It was too boyfriendly, too intimate. Richie Tozier didn’t get intimate. It went against his brand. 

“Hmmmm, nothing,” Richie hummed, trailing his lips up to meets Eddie’s, nipping at Eddie’s bottom lip and pulling it with his teeth. 

Eddie let out a groan, hands coming up to tangle into Richie’s curls, as he kissed Richie back with everything he could. As he Richie brought a hand down to cup at Eddie’s ass, he knew that the conversation wasn’t over or forgotten, but he’d managed to post-pone it at least for a little while. 

It wasn’t any of Eddie’s business anyway, he told himself through the feeling that if Eddie didn’t stop asking- then Richie was going to tell him. And that just couldn’t happen. 

Just as Richie was getting into it for real, his own cock starting to stiffen, the alarm on his phone rang through the room. Groaning in a completely unsexy way, Richie pulled away from Eddie’s chest and and grabbed at the ringing device to silence it. 

“We have to get going.” Richie grumbled, rolling out of the bed and stretching. Eddie’s eyes trailing over his body, mouth half agape, and Richie grinned cockily. One of his favourite things about Eddie was that he always looked at him naked like he was seeing it for the very first time. 

“Right now?” Eddie asked a voice that greatly resembled Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. “Can’t we like... snooze it for half an hour?”

Richie laughed a little breathlessly, holding a hand out to help Eddie off the bed. “It’s cute that you think I set the alarm even one minute earlier than I absolutely needed to. Let alone thirty.”  Eddie pouted- actually pouted- and Richie gave another laugh and he heaved him to his feet. “Come on, Eds. You can wear one of my shirts for the camera and just spend the whole time thinking about how good I’m going to fuck you when we get back here tonight.”

The words certainly didn’t have the desired effect on Eddie that Richie had been going for.  Rather than the little whine Richie had hoped to hear, he just got a look of wide eyes and surprise. “Am I... Am I coming back here tonight?”

Richie faltered. Eddie had stayed at his place for the last three nights at least, and it truthfully hadn’t occurred to Richie that Eddie might not be coming back with him. “I mean... you don’t have to, I just sort of thought...”

Eddie had started putting his clothes in the top drawer of Richie’s dresser. He had a tooth brush and mouth wash in the bathroom. Audra had started adding Eddie’s cereal and yogurt brands of choice fruits to the grocery list. It hadn’t been things Richie had noticed happening, but now it was suddenly staring him in the face and he was starting to sweat. 

“But if you want to go  _ home,”  _ Richie said, maybe not even meaning to emphasize that this wasn’t Eddie’s home. “That makes sense. I can see why you’d be homesick. Missing your boys.”

Eddie shrugged one shoulder, grabbing Richie’s Nirvana shirt from the top of the dresser where Richie had discarded it the night before rather quickly. It was one of the shirts that Eddie complained about Richie wearing too often, but Richie could see the way Eddie’s eyes would darken every time he saw it. And it looked enough like Eddie’s new wardrobe that the fan girls on the Internet would be able to argue on whether or not it belonged to Richie. Eddie was, without a doubt, getting better at this publicity thing. 

“I don’t think my band mates are really talking to me right now.” Eddie admitted, sounding small and kind of pathetic. Something Richie definitely had taken notice of  in past week or so, was that Eddie had stopped calling the other members of his band his “friends”, and started referring to them only as his bandmates. Richie wondered for the hundredth time if his management branch was putting at lot of stake into a sinking ship. “So, if you’re okay with me coming back here, I’d uh... love to stay over again.”

“You’re always welcome here, Eddie.” Richie said, and hated himself for how true it was turning out to be. His first impressions of Eddie Kaspbrak hadn’t been  _ wrong  _ per say, but Richie found that his correct assumptions weren’t so terrible. Eddie had passion, no doubt about that. He cared about things, in a fierce way that made Richie a little apprehensive. The world hadn’t broken Eddie’s spirit yet, and he’d known that from the first time he’d set eyes on him. But unlike when he’d first met Eddie, it no longer made him interested in seeing it happen... it made him want to try to make sure it never did. 

A loud banging on the bedroom door broke through Richie’s troubling bubbles of thought. “Hey Richard! Get your dick out of Eddie and get ready! We needed to be ready five minutes ago, you fucking nasty!” 

Eddie burst out laughing, smacking his hands over his face as Richie jumped into a pair of black jeans. “Fuck off, Phillips!” Glancing over his shoulder to make sure that Eddie was decent, he threw the bedroom door open. “Look. We’re ready. Not a dick in sight.”

“Oh, I see a dick.” Audra said, looking pointedly at Richie’s face while Eddie continued to giggle in the background. “Richie, you’re not even wearing a shirt!”

“This is my new look.” Richie said, with a blank expression and serious voice. “Figured I can’t get bad reviews on my fashion sense if I don’t wear any clothes.” 

“It  _ is  _ an improvement,” Eddie said, switching the flip in his head that takes him right out of the soft Eddie that Richie fell into bed with. Getting right back into the all-salt-no-sugar Kaspbrak act that Richie had met in Kay’s office two months ago. “Though not much of one.”

Audra rolled her eyes. “Oh yeah. And if you guys are looking for publicity on your relationship, Richie walking around bare chested like  _ that  _ is definitely going to do it.”

Eddie looked at Richie full on as Richie glanced down at himself, both making a similar squawking-laugh noise, Eddie covering his face back up again and laughing behind his hands. They’d both forgotten about Eddie determination to prove that he could fit his initials in hickies over Richie’s chest until that moment.

“Hey.” Richie shrugged, trying to act through the embarrassment burning on his cheeks. “At least there will be no question of who left them to spark cheating rumours.”

“Put a shirt on, Dickard. And let’s go.” 

 

Before they got out of the car in front of their management office, Richie immediately reached out and tangled his hand with Eddie’s. Eddie turned to him quickly, eyes wide and confused. “There’s always cameras.” Richie said seriously, trying not to frown too deeply. “Even when you don’t think there’s cameras... there’s cameras.”

“Google Earth,” Eddie joked, sounding breathless and overwhelmed. “Always taking pictures.”

Richie smiled sadly at him, rubbing at the back of Eddie’s hand with his thumb. They got out of the car, Richie and Eddie hand-in-hand and they walk towards the building without sharing a word. Without looking around. 

Richie could feel Stan glaring at them when they got into the meeting room, but whether the glare was directed at him or at Eddie- Richie couldn’t be sure. Once they were in the room, surrounded only by people who knew their relationship was fake, Eddie let go of Richie and moved across the room to talk to Mike. 

Richie tried not to look like a dog who had been left at home while his owner went out when he moved to take his sit. But, since he was the only person sitting, he supposed that didn’t work. Until Stan sat down beside him, of course. 

“Are you guys fucking?” Stan asked him, the fact that it was under his breath not stopping it from sounding so goddamn loud in Richie’s head. 

“No,” Richie lied immediately. 

“Good.” Stan said, single word sounding like a threat.  "Eddie doesn’t need to lose his virginity to some millionaire dude bro who doesn’t care about him.”

“I-” Richie choked on nothing when he began to feel like the world was collapsing around him again. He turned slowly, finding Eddie in the room and saw that Eddie was already looking at him. At him and Stan, glancing between them with a look of fear in his eyes. Like a deer in front of oncoming traffic in the middle of the night. 

“Okay, guys.” The woman in the black suit at the front of the room called them all to attention. She had long since mastered the look of wanting to be somewhere else, no matter where she was or what she was doing. Richie resented being in the same room as her. “We’re going to keep this short. Your guys’ single is doing great, your album is set to drop next week so we don’t really see a need to keep this whole thing going on. Eddie, Richie, your officially free from your contracted relationship.”

Eddie was trying to find Richie’s eyes from across the table, but Richie firmly avoided it. “And how are we doing it? Some big public fight?”

The woman shook her head. “Oh no. No need for all that. We already have a story of you cheated ready to leak Richie. It’ll boost up the band’s album sales greatly, everybody feeling so bad for Edward. Innocent boy done wrong by an experienced actor, it’ll be great for his reputation.”

“What about Richie’s reputation?” Eddie asked, sounding small and nervous. Richie hand twitched, wanting to reach out for him but he couldn’t. Couldn’t with Eddie so far away, and  _ wouldn’t  _ with all the people in the room.

“She doesn’t care about my reputation. Never has.” Richie said, staring her down. He could feel the eyes in the room being trained on him, and he raised his brow. “Right, Mom?”

He could just barely see the way Eddie’s mouth dropped open. 

“Any publicity is good publicity, Richard.” Maggie Tozier said with a stern look. “God knows you could use  _ something  _ to work with. Doing films with William Denbrough isn’t going to skate you by for the rest of your life. Give people a reason to know your name.”

“Even if it’s a terrible reason?” Stanley challenged her, showing bigger balls than even Richie had himself.

“All the best names are known for terrible reasons.” Maggie said, picking up the papers from the table and nodding around the room. “That’s all we needed you for today, I already talked to the band about their own things earlier so-”

“Wait, I wasn’t here.” Eddie said, sounding lost. “What things?”

“Oh, Edward,” Maggie said in a drippingly sweet voice. “You don’t need to worry about any of those behind the scenes things. Just go out there and look cute, let the professionals and musicians take care of everything else.” 

Eddie looked ready to keep arguing, but Maggie and her underlings were already heading out the door. Kay gave Richie an apologetic look on her way out, that Richie made a point to return with a blank glare. The band all stood up, while Eddie remained looking shell shock and sad in his seat. 

Ben seemed to hesitate towards going to Eddie, but Stan put an arm around Ben and lead him out the door. Mike dropped a hand on Eddie’s shoulder and squeezed before following the couple out the door. 

Eddie’s face crumpled and he pressed a hand against his mouth. Richie sighed, getting out of his seat and moving to sit beside Eddie, wrapping an arm around him. “I’m sorry, Eddie.”

Eddie let out a wet, humourless laugh. “Why are you sorry? You tried to warn me. You were the  _ only person  _ who tried to warn me.”

Richie swallowed roughly, rubbing Eddie’s back.  “If it makes you feel any better, I actually wish I had been wrong.”

Eddie wiped tears out of his eyes, then dropped his hand to Richie’s knee and squeezed. “I’m sorry, too. You know, that you’re... getting tossed under the bus with this whole thing. It’s not fair.”

“No, it’s not.” Richie agreed. “But I’d expected it. I figured they’d at least wait until you were promoting the album or touring. But I kind of knew all along that I’d be the bad guy.”

Eddie’s eyes filled with tears again. “I don’t want to do this anymore.”

Richie frowned. “It’s too late for that, Eds. I’m sorry.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hiiiiiiiiiiii im getting my shit together and starting to update frequently again!! thank you for holding, i promise i'm working on not being a piece of garbage lmao


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> CHAPTER WARNINGS: there's some really.... fucked up privacy/consent issues within this chapter, regarding something that happens TO richie and eddie. not between them. thank.

Audra walked to Richie sitting at the kitchen table, dropped her phone down and slid it across the table. It had been two weeks since the news of Richie’s cheating- with some sort of blond starlet skank, and Richie had barely left his apartment. He was more than a little experienced in the Hollywood times, and he knew that the best thing to do is to simply let everything blow over. Not give paps anything  “Is this another article about me?”

“No. Not you.” Audra said glumly, taking a seat across from her best friend. Richie frowned and picked up the device, groaning at the sight of large headline.

**NEW ALTERNATIVE BAND ALREADY ON THE ROCKS? HERE’S THE SCOOP ON EDDIE KASPBRAK AND BAND MATES FALLING OUT.**

“That’s not good.” Richie said, putting the phone back down and pushing it back to Audra. “Do you know what the Mother from Hell is going to do about it?”

Audra shook her head, clicking her phone screen off. “No. But this article is pretty bad. Makes Eddie look like a serious piece of shit. All of the work that they put into making you look like some dirt bag in your relationship with Eddie have been for nothing. People are already speculating online that Eddie’s behaviour pushed you to cheat on him.”

Richie groaned again, running his fingers through his hair. “So I’m going to get hit with some more bad press to make Eddie look good again?”

Audra let out a low, harsh breath. “I don’t know what they’re going to do. They could easily spin this on Eddie. Play him off as some sort of terrible person, pump you back up, start paying attention to some other member of their band...”

“Or they could drop them.” Richie said quietly, tapping his fingers against the counter. “This kind of drama without even an album dropped, no real results? It might not be a risk they want to take.” 

Audra nodded. “Yeah, no. You’re right. I can see it. Then Eddie will just be some wannabe that you used to go out with.” Audra rolled her eyes. “Sucks. They could have been great, but I think... most of the things in this article about Eddie and Stan are true.”

Richie tapped his whole palm against the counter just once, then pushed away from the table, yanking out his own phone. 

“Where are you going!?!” Audra called to him as Richie walked from the room, holding a finger over his shoulder. The other end rang so long that Richie began to tap his foot angrily on the ground, knowing that his caller ID had been seen and they were hoping he would hang up. But Richie wasn’t going to shove aside.

“ _ Hello, you’ve reached the line of Margaret Tozier. She unfortunately can’t come to the phone right now-” _

“Cut the shit, Kevin.” Richie broke through, pinching the brim of his nose. “We both know she’s literally listening in on this phone call because you saw my name when the phone started to ring. Put her on, and get the fuck off. Or I swear to  _ God-”  _

_ “What is it Richard?”  _ Maggie’s voice finally came through the line, but Richie remained silent until he heard the sound of her assistant clicking off the line. 

“You’re going to drop Eddie’s band, aren’t you?” Richie said sharply. “Because of that leak?”

Maggie was quiet on the other end. “ _ Not because of the leak _ .” She finally responded. “ _ Because what was said in the leaks were true. We’re not going to put our money or time into a band that’s just going to have a bunch of issues and crash into chaos half way through a tour. You have to understand that _ .” 

“Well, I don’t.” Richie lied. Trying to pretend that hadn’t been a thought of his own this whole time. “It’s not... it’s not like that with them. Maybe they’re fighting right now, whatever. Stan and the guys, they’re good dudes and Eddie... Eddie isn’t like what those leaks said, okay? He’s not. This is their dream. You can’t tease them with it and then take it away. Not after the fucking hoops you made Eddie jump through. The only reasons there’s any fighting at all is because of you!”

Another silence from the other side of line, and Richie let out a frustrated sigh. “ _ Richard, are you in love with this boy? _ ”

Richie almost growled. “NO, Mother.” Richie smacked himself in the face, not sure how else to get his feelings out in that moment. Richie smacked himself in the face, not sure how else to get his feelings out in that moment. “It’s not even about that, it’s just... they’re good, you  _ know  _ they’re good. So maybe if  _ you  _ just left them alone, stop making them do fucking bullshit publicity and trying to keep Eddie separate from the band like that shit you pulled with that meeting last week, then they’d fine!” 

_ “And what are we supposed to do about these accusations about Edward? _ ” Maggie counted. “ _ It’s too early in his career for people to be talking about him being a bad person. The time hasn’t come for bad publicity _ .”

“Oh fuck off.” Richie said with an eye roll. “You expect me to believe that you don’t have something up to your sleeve that can take the attention away from this? Eddie and his band are good people, and they’re good musicians, okay? I know you pull something.”

More silence. Richie squeezed his eyes shut, knocking his head against the forehead. 

“Please, Mommy.”

“ _... I’ll see what I can do, Richard _ .”

xxx

The next morning Richie and Audra were awoken with a loud banging from the front door. Richie rolled from his bed and smashed his face against the ground. Richie groaned and rubbed at what would no doubt become a bruise on his forehead. 

“RICHARD! OPEN THIS FUCKING DOOR RIGHT NOW!” 

Eddie Kaspbrak?  Richie blinked and grabbed for his eye glasses, stumbling to his feet. He hadn’t heard from Eddie- because of strict orders- since their break up had been released to the public. And he sounded beyond pissed. 

Richie tossed the door open, Audra stumbling out of her room just behind them. “Hey, Eds, what’s-” Richie coughed out the end of his sentence as Eddie’s fist connected angrily with his chest. Richie wheezed, clutching at himself and stepping backwards. Eddie followed him in, punching at Richie anywhere he could reach.

“You stupid, motherfucking piece of shit!” Eddie screamed, tears on his face and voice pitching high.

Eddie screamed, tears on his face and voice pitching high. “You goddamn greasy whore! FUCK YOU! I can’t believe I ever thought you- FUCK!” 

Eddie’s hand collided with the side of Richie’s face, and Audra finally snapped out of her shock. She ran forward and squeezed herself between the raging Eddie and now shaking Richie. “Whoa, whoa, whoa,  _ whoa.  _ What the hell is going on, Eddie!?!”

Eddie let angry heaves of breath, glaring at Richie as the other boy rubbed his cheeks and tried to hold back the tears in his eyes. “This fucking bastard recorded us having sex and didn’t fucking ask me. Didn’t even TELL me.”

Audra whipped around to glare at Richie, but found him looked at Eddie in complete confusion even as his cheek was starting to swell up. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Don’t play stupid!” Eddie cried, tears still pouring down his face even as his face was bright red with anger. “It’s all over the fucking Internet! Everybody has fucking seen it, you FUCKING perv.”

Richie shook his head, a dazed expression coming over him. “Eddie, I swear to God I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.” 

There must have been something in Richie’s voice, or his face, he wasn’t sure, but it was like something in Eddie deflated. His cheeks were still red, and his arms were still shaking, but he suddenly looked more uneasy than anger. “Come on.” He said a little sharply. “I’ll show you.”

Audra quickly bundled up a bag of ice and handed it to Eddie. Eddie moved over and pressed the bag to Richie’s swelling cheek. “You could say sorry for hitting me seven thousand times,” Richie grumbled, wincing at the ice touched his skin. 

Eddie glared at him darkly. “I’m not apologizing for shit until I’m completely convinced I’m not going to kill you for this.”

Richie sighed, letting Audra lean between them as the video loaded.  It was clearly Richie’s bedroom, Richie sucking marks down Eddie’s chest while Eddie whimpered under him. Richie’s stomach churned and he couldn’t let it play for longer than 30 seconds before he smashing the laptop’s keys to get it to stop.

He pressed a hand over his mouth, and Eddie’s expression finally lost all trace of anger. He leaned past Richie’s shoulders to look at his face. “Richie. Are you okay?”

“I don’t understand.” Richie admitted, frowning even though it sort of hurt his face. Richie admitted, frowning even though it sort of hurt his face. “That’s us. That’s my room. But I don’t... I didn’t put a fucking camera in my room. Before Eddie, I hadn’t even had sex with somebody in that bed before.”

“What?!?” Eddie squawked but Richie just shook his head. 

There was a serious, dark look on Audra’s face. She run her tongue along her bottom lip and booked it from the table, running towards Richie’s bedroom. Eddie and Richie exchanged a long look before Eddie dropped the ice bag to the table and they chased after her. 

As Eddie and Richie got into the bedroom, Audra was standing on Richie’s bed, staring up at his over head fan. 

“Hey... whatacha doin...” Richie said slowly. 

Audra looked down at him, and there was level of crazy in her eyes that Richie hadn’t seen in years. Eddie shuffled a little closer to Richie, standing half behind him. “This is the angle from the video right,” Audra said, gesturing wildly around the room. “And we can’t deny that. So there’s a camera in here. Even if Richie didn’t put it up, somebody did.”

Richie nodded slowly, feeling Eddie leaning into his space. He was a little concerned with how quickly Eddie had gone from ready-to-murder-him to using-him-for-comfort, but he shrugged it off. If the situation had been reversed, Richie probably would’ve been out for blood too, if he’d been Eddie.

Audra looked back up, narrowing her eyes at the fan once again. “Eddie, Richie, somebody get me the baseball bat from under the bed.”

“You keep a baseball bat under your bed?” Eddie asked, widening his eyes as Richie moved to toss it towards her. 

“Yeah,” Richie shrugged. 

Audra clutched the baseball bat, and gave zero warning before swinging it up to collide with the fan. The fan smashed open, piece flying everywhere. Eddie let out a startled cry, Richie diving towards him and shoving Eddie behind him. Audra knocked the bat into the remaining parts of the fan before sighing and tossing the bat aside. 

Richie and Eddie stepped closer as Audra knelt down to start picking through the pieces of the fan. Finally, she pulled out a camera with ruined ends from being forced out of the ceiling. Eddie glanced up, narrowing his eyes until he could see the frayed ends from the camera’s cord that buried itself into the ceiling. 

Richie walked forward slowly, taking the camera from Audra’s hands and turning it over in his hands. He ran his fingers along the engraved writing;  **BURNS-TOZIER MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT.**

Richie’s stomach heaved and he barely made it to the bedside garbage can before he was losing whatever was in there. 


End file.
